Research and Development Technologist (Former Employee) – Monaca Pa – 20 March 2012

This is a good place to work. I enjoyed my job and the people that I worked with. The company is strict about safety and should be because of the chemicals involved. Over the years I worked there I was always learning to better myself and the company.

All the employees are really helping and facilitate you in every possible way even going extra mile.Management is really helpful and got strong growth oriented culture.Safety is the most important aspect of the companies policy. they educate very well before beginning any task and state of the art facility.

If I knew that I would be a contractor for 3 years and going indefinitely, I would never take this job. When you finish your school, you are happy to take any job. The first two years was awesome, the best job I ever had. All is happy. It turned 180 degree in my last year, work load increase from record volume of products to other minor tasks . After awhile I realized that the only way to get a permanent job with them is if someone retire or someone win the lottery. Retire was not an options because most of the regular employees have mortgage and children so they wasn't going to retire anytime soon, and some of them are even younger than me, so I wasn't going to wait forever. Leaderships at the very top like two tier system, they could pay contractor cheaper than the regulars and no benefits plus not all the other good stuffs. When the economy go down, the contractors bear all the weight of their financial stress. Regulars employees get automatic cost of living raise and profit share, contractors have no raise but more works, nice team we have there. At first I respect them and I love my job, I would move mountain for them. But then they throw me under the bus and left me in the dirt. Contractors are disposable so you don't get a raise because they know you have nowhere to go because the economy is down. Toward the end I lost all respect for company, it's all about more for themselves and less for everyone else. So my option was limited, either keep my job and suffer indignation, or go home and be unemployed. Lucky I have good family support, so I walk. Theymore... could easily in a stroke of a pen(or in their board room meeting) make my position a Nova position, but why would they want to do that eh? This is a world wide things, look at all the staffing agency out there.less

Pros

Profitable company, you can earn a good living if you are lucky enough to be in the door (ie. being a regular Nova)

Overall good experience. A Management personal was difficult to work with. Most of the employees there were very accommodating to work with. Not a comfortable experience for the most part. I went in there to complete a job but in some cases made to feel intimidated by ones knowledge of the work place which I did not have as I was only there for two months. However I knew what was required to be completed and that was accomplished. If offered a position there I would have declined due to the intimidation. I prefer a team work environment, not a one person show.

During my time at NOVA Chemicals, every day presented new challenges and obstacles to overcome. I was given a combination of large and small tasks, often simultaneous, and left to independently complete them. The team I worked with was excellent at explaining if I had any questions concerning the job or the engineering profession in general.

As a member of the reliability team, I am responsible for the implementation of major control systems and field instruments upgrade, and l influence decisions and initiate changes to sustain and improve performance of the field instruments and control systems for an Ethylene unit, working with my team to explore and implement new technology and applications that support manufacturing excellence, Identify and implement Safety, Health, Environment and Risk requirements

Operations coordinator - I spent sever years with Nova as an operations coordinator in charge of pipelines and utilities. I worked on the Utilities Area Work Team and was involved in making all equipment modification and improvement decisions. I was in charge of 6 operating teams and worked on all projects related to the direct operation of the plant and pipeline.

Training Specialist - I work for several years developing training for the operations group at Nova. Responsibilities included : writing training manuals, procedures, one on one training of operators, and working with the LMS system.

The work experience was very enjoyable. Friendly colleagues are very supportive, The most enjoyable part of the job was the accessibility of the field information and the flexibility on how I was able to perform my daily tasks. One of the cleanest facilities I have worked at.

A wonderful operator company. I had one year contract position as unit mechanical engineer. I was responsible for preventive and predictive maintenance and prepared construction work packages for multiple projects. I enjoyed my work at NOVA.

Spending 150 hours at NOVA Chemicals I was trained and introduced to various administrative knowledge and tasks such as:

•Meeting deadlines•Knowledge of SAP•Booking travels for various people•Proper use of the printer – copy, scan and print•Writing, printing and mailing out letters and/or cheques•Arranging and adding contact information through Outlook•Proper use of photocopier, printer and fax machines•Participated in various face to face and/or conference meetings

I was also trained at the reception desk, giving me the knowledge and expectations of tasks.

I have worked as a contractor for NOVA. I am an educated person with almost 20 years experience in my field who was hired as a contractor in hopes of attaining a full time job. The contractors are treated like they are a lower form of life, and when a full time position opens up - they hire externally instead of the fully capable and fully trained CONTRACTORS they already have doing the job.

I drove over 5000 kms to work that job, thought that it was a career and they laid me off for safety reasons after reporting a cut on my arm. The guy before me was there for one month and they didnt like him so he was fired and I saw 2 more job postings for the same lab (PE2) 1 month after and 2 months after I got fired so those other guys probably didnt last long either.

Easiest job I have ever had in my entire life. Ended up working for only 2 hours out of my 12 hour shifts and swept floors 3 times a day to appear busy. once you're in the union, its a great job with O.K. job security, but they put you on probation for a full year and all of the full time guys are very old, making over 100k per year, and definitely unwilling to give up their jobs to some young new guy.

You have to be very careful what you say and do in PE2 because they have monthly quotas of reporting 2 safety incidences a month and the older guys will write you up for absolutely everything. One time I had to drill and cut a polyethylene sample from reactor 1 and the older guy gave me a pair of cut resistant gloves and a pair of drill resistant gloves. He scurried off to his office and watched me from a small distance as I worked, probably to see if I was using the proper gloves for each tool... it was messed up. That had to of been the safest laboratory I have ever worked in. Absolutely no need to have 2 incidences reported every month as a quota